Chapter Thirty-Three

Reggie knocked on her mother’s hotel room door. Dimitri answered with a smile. It only lasted for a moment before it fell from his face. He must have seen something in hers. Reggie walked past him. She didn’t know who had been involved, or who wasn’t involved. She just knew that she wasn’t going to walk out of the room with anymore lies.

Dom sat on the couch, looking at something on his phone. He stood when he saw her, concern etching into his face, a look she hadn’t seen for a long time. Reggie wanted to believe that Dom didn’t have anything to do with it. He was the only lifeline she’d had for so long—the only one that kept her sane. Her throat constricted at the thought of him having anything to do with this.

“Reg?” He stepped toward her and she held up a hand.

“Don’t.” Tears stung her eyes. Every inch of her hurt with betrayal. This entire thing had become so—twisted. “Did you know?”

“Know?” He furrowed his brow in confusion. “Know about what?”

Dimitri moved to the other side of the room. Reggie kept an eye on him out of her peripheral. She clenched her hands into fists. “The attack,” she said in a low voice. “Did you know?”

“The attack on you and Devon?”

She gave a stiff nod.

He frowned. “That’s what this is about?”

Reggie wondered if she was speaking in a foreign tongue. Maybe her anger somehow warped the words. She clacked her teeth together and bit the inside of her cheek. “Yes. So, I’ll ask again. Did you know?”

“Did I know what, Reggie?” He stepped forward again, and she pulled her gun, aiming it at him. “Whoa, hey!” He held up his hands.

“Reggie?” Dimitri put a hand to his gun. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting the truth!” Her chest heaved with agony. Breathing felt so difficult, like she couldn’t get enough air. Even when she managed, it burned her chest, adding to the pain that seemed never ending. For so long, she’d believed that the attack was just a memory. Something she thought about every day, but it was over. The man who killed her fiancé and baby girl dead. This whole thing with Crichton opened it up like someone cut stitches that had sewn up her heart.

“Reggie,” Dom said in a soft tone. He held up a hand to Dimitri, stilling the other man. “I don’t know what’s going on, okay? Talk to me.”

She didn’t move, keeping the gun aimed. Dom’s eyes held worry, his hands up, showing he wasn’t a threat.

“Tell me what happened.” He walked toward her and this time, Reggie didn’t stop him.

Her hand shook, the gun trembling along with it. Reggie never had a problem keeping a gun steady.

“Just talk to me,” he said again.

Reggie squeezed her eyes shut. She hated this hotel, hated being surrounded by a past she tried so hard to escape. The smells coaxed her memory. Her mother’s perfume.

Without hesitation, Reggie’s eyes flew open, and she turned, finding herself face to face with her mother.

“Mom!” Dom’s eyes widened as he tried to maneuver between them. “What the hell?!”

Marissa’s hand held a gun aimed at Reggie. She didn’t tremble, didn’t even blink, and Reggie’s heart crumbled. Any bit of sympathy or love she’d had disappeared. Her mother had no remorse, not even an inkling of sympathy. She was a fucking sociopath who didn’t care if she ruined her daughter’s life.

Dimitri moved to stand on the far wall, his hand resting on the butt of his gun. Reggie saw the set of his shoulders and the indecision of his stance. Family didn’t kill family.

“Dominic had no hand in my decision,” Marissa said. “I acted alone.”

“Alone in what?” Dominic asked. “Someone tell me what the hell is going on!”

Reggie slid a hand into her pocket and pulled the flash drive out. “Our mother was the one behind the attack on me and Devon.”

Dom clenched his jaw, eyes widening as he turned to look at Marissa.

“Yeah,” Reggie said with a tight voice. “I wasn’t the intended target, but the guy screwed up and I lost my whole family in the process.”

Marissa sighed. “Regina, don’t be so melodramatic. It was a long time ago, and Devon wasn’t your family.”

“He was the father of my child!”

“Yes, and Sophie wasn’t supposed to die,” she said in a calm voice. “I wouldn’t harm my own grandchild, despite who the father is.”

Dominic rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the ceiling. “Christ, mom.”

He didn’t sound surprised. In truth, Reggie shouldn’t have been either. Marissa had done worse things than this. Except she’d never done them to her own children.

“So, what?” Reggie shrugged and threw her hand out in frustration. “I’m just supposed to forget this happened? Move on, come home, and take over the business?”

“You will have your revenge, Regina,” Marissa said. “You will get to watch me die a suffering death.”

“What?” Dom and Reggie echoed the sentiment at the same time.

“I’m dying,” she said. Lowering the gun, Marissa used her other hand to pull a wig off her head, leaving her bald.

“Shit,” Dom said. “When did—what?”

Hysteria flashed in his eyes, and Reggie didn’t stop it. Normally she comforted her brother, helped through chaotic times. She’d always been the stronger one in that aspect, but not today. No, today she had her own hysterics to deal with.

“Pancreatic cancer,” Marissa explained. “I don’t have much time left.”

“And that’s supposed to make it right?” Reggie asked in pure rage. “Everything you’ve done, everything you did?! This doesn’t make it better.”

“And does that?” Marissa gestured to the gun in Reggie’s hand.

Grinding her teeth together, Reggie glared. Every fiber of her wanted to put her mother down, stomp her, kick her, beat her like Reggie’d been beaten.

“Do it,” Marissa said. “Do it and take your rightful place as head of the DeLuca family.”

Josh held his hand just above the door of the DeLuca suite at the hotel. He couldn’t let Reggie face this alone. Sylvia and Carrie had the kids taken care of—and the argument with Carrie had been one hell of a blowout. He understood her being pissed, but she needed to understand he’d do anything to save his family. Reggie was a part of that now. Even if she couldn’t see that for fear of losing them. He didn’t know what he was going to say, but his thoughts of getting Reggie back home safe were all that mattered. Anyone other than Reggie, he had no clue what they were capable of—not really. The only thing that stopped him from going in without a plan was the sound of raised voices coming through the room. Most of it was muffled, but he heard a high-pitched note here and there. Reggie sounded—somewhere between lost, angry, and scared.

Instead of knocking, Josh pulled out the extra key Dom gave him while they were trying to get Emma away from Crichton. He waved it over the mechanism and it turned green. Opening the door, he stepped inside. Before he could even assess the situation, the cold barrel of a gun was pressed to his temple.

“Hey, it’s me. It’s Josh!” He held up his hands.

Dimitri. The big guy realized this and, though he didn’t look pleased, lowered the gun.

Reggie glanced over at him and then focused back on her mother.

“Don’t fall into the same habits as before, Regina,” Marissa said. “You need a man as strong as you, one who will be able to help you keep the family going.”

“Devon was strong,” Reggie said in a clipped tone.

“He couldn’t protect you,” Marissa said.

“No one can protect me from you, mother,” she said in a low tone. She pulled back the hammer on the gun.

“Whoa, Reggie!” Josh wasn’t the only one to shout. Dom and Dimitri both said something, but he didn’t know what. He put a hand up to silence them.

Part of the reason he came was because he thought Reggie might lose it. He didn’t blame her, but too many people coming at her wasn’t going to help things. They’d been through a lot in a little period of time. He’d almost gotten through to her before. Hopefully, he could again.

“Reggie,” he said in a soft tone. “You don’t want to do this.”

“Yes,” Marissa said. “She does. She needs to.”

Josh noted the fact that Marissa was now bald. He frowned at her. “You’re dying.” He didn’t make it a question. Marissa didn’t seem the type to throw away her life, not if she thought there was a chance, but from what he could tell, she was the type of woman to push her daughter down a path she didn’t want to go.

He shook his head. “Reggie, listen to me. She’s manipulating you.”

“I don’t care.” She gave a slight shake of the head. “Devon and Sophie were murdered on her order.”

A tear slid down her cheek and Josh wasn’t far from wanting to take the gun and shoot Marissa in her stead. He knew from earlier. Knew that somehow this woman had nearly crushed her daughter’s soul, but hearing it out loud—it made him gag on bile.

Son of a bitch!

“She wants you to do this, Reggie,” Josh said. “Maybe it’s not how she planned, but at some point she was going to put you in this position. You or her. Because if you take her life, you’re not going to be the same woman.”

Reggie nibbled on her lip, her eyes becoming clearer behind the sheen of tears. A surge of hope washed through Josh.

“She wants to change you into her, and Reggie, if you do this,” he said in a calm voice. “You will become her.”

“No!” Reggie shook her head. “I will never be her!”

Josh nodded. “That’s what I’m counting on. Because you are a good woman. You don’t belong in this life. You’ve always known that. It’s why you tried to get away. Why you’ve been a renegade for three years.” He smiled warmly at her. “It’s why you found us. Or maybe why we found you. Maybe it was mutual. I don’t know, I just know you’re better than this.” Waving his hand, he gestured to the situation. “Your brother knows it, I know it, and even your dad knew it. Remember you told me? He wanted you to get away.” He stepped closer to her. “Please Reggie, don’t give her what she wants.”

Marissa glared at them, her dark eyes like a liquid poison that seeped through Josh’s skin, but he focused on Reggie. She was the one that mattered, the one who needed a lifeline to be brought back. If Marissa stepped out a window, he wouldn’t care, but he couldn’t watch Reggie destroy herself while trying to find something to hold on to.

“Give me the gun,” Josh said, holding out his hand. “Please.”

Everything Josh said made sense. It was true. Reggie knew it was, but there was some lingering hatred, something that ached so badly that at the end of this, Reggie didn’t care what happened. Josh and his kids would be safe. She could leave. What did it matter if she pulled the trigger? Tension thrummed her muscles, her whole body rigid. Except at the end of it, she didn’t know if she’d be able to live with herself.

“Please,” Josh said. “Reggie, please. Give me the gun.”

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. His nearness somehow brought her out of the hysteria she’d felt. For a moment, the anger had almost consumed her. She still didn’t know if she cared. Josh could be right. Looking at her mother, all Reggie could see was anger. Nothing else, no sympathy or fear, just—anger. Maybe because Marissa was still alive.

“Can you feel anything?” Reggie asked in a quiet voice. “Besides hate and rage, can you feel anything?”

Her mother clenched her jaw and glowered. “I feel that I may have wasted my time hoping that you could ever be the leader you were born to be.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Josh said. The voice of reason, the angel to Reggie’s own personal demons. “She’s trying to trip you up. Make you angry again. Just give me the gun.”

More tears slipped down her cheeks.

“Please, Reg,” Dom said, his voice quiet. “Listen to Josh.”

“Stay out of this, Dominic,” Marissa snapped.

“Mother,” he said in a low voice. “For once in your life, shut up. I’m half tempted to let her shoot you, but Josh is right.” He looked at his sister. “I don’t want to lose you.”

Reggie jerked the gun at her mother and gave an exasperated sound.

“Don’t,” Josh said, holding up his hand moving partially between them. “I need you. Not the woman you’ll become if you pull that trigger. I need the woman you are now.”

“When you die, I won’t mourn you. I won’t shed a single tear.” She sucked in a breath, trying to steady her voice. “But I’m not going to kill you. That’s the easy way out for you, and the hard life for me.”

Lowering the gun, Reggie shook her head. “I need to get out of here.”

Josh took the weapon from her hand, passing it to Dom before putting an arm around Reggie’s waist. She hadn’t even known how weak she felt till he did it, but it felt good to have someone help keep her head above water. Everything felt like unsteady ground beneath her.

“Get her out of here.” Her brother looked at Josh. “I’ll call later.”

“Dom,” Reggie whispered, looking over at him. She felt heavy, like the world had finally crushed her soul. He looked over at her. “Sorry, I thought you were involved.”

Walking over, he kissed her forehead. “Nothing to be sorry for. None of this is your fault.” He gave a pointed look to Marissa before hugging Reggie. “Go. I’ll clean this up.”

She nodded. “Thanks, Dom.”

Josh led her toward the door.

“Regina! You’re not walking away. Not again!” Marissa’s voice raised in hysterics. “Come back here or so help me—“

“Enough, mother,” Dom’s angry voice leveled hers. “You’re not going to do anything to her, ever again.”

Reggie felt relieved to know that, in some aspect at least, she still had her brother. She walked out of the hotel room with Josh and as soon as the door closed behind them, Reggie’s knees gave way. The air rushed out of her lungs and it felt like the hallway pressed in on her. Josh lifted her up in a bridal hold.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered in her ear.

Reggie choked back a sob, gripping the back of his shirt. Because for the first time since she lost Devon and Sophie, she didn’t feel utterly alone.

Josh carried her to his SUV and settled her in the passenger side. He shut the door and went around to the other side.

“Why did you come back?” Reggie asked once he got behind the wheel.

He put the key in the ignition and started the SUV. A rush of cool air blasted from the vents, and Reggie closed her eyes as it cooled her body.

She heard the leather creak as he moved in the seat, and then his hand was on her cheek. “Look at me.”

Opening her eyes, she turned her face, his features a bit hazy from the tears that still sat in her eyes. He brushed his thumb over her cheek and smiled at her.

“I came back for you.” Josh leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers. “I could say it’s because you saved Emma, or because I knew you were in a bad situation, but the truth is—I love you, Reggie.”

She jerked her head back, eyes going wide.

He laughed at her reaction. “I do. I know it’s only been a short amount of time, but even without everything else that happened—I don’t know when it happened, but I do. I love you.” He stroked her cheek again.

Reggie closed her eyes, letting those words sink in. “That’s funny.”

“What is?”

“I thought it was just me.” She chuckled softly and opened her eyes again. “Because I love you too.”

Grinning wide, his eyes filled with a brightness that Reggie adored.

“Definitely not just you.” He moved his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her close, kissing Reggie.

It didn’t take away the ache in her soul, but it helped. It mended a small piece inside of her.

He pulled back, panting, his lips slightly swollen. Reggie wanted to kiss him again, but at that moment, she wanted to get the hell away from this place more.

Josh must have sensed it because he kissed her nose and pulled back, putting on his seatbelt. “Let’s go home.”

Reggie didn’t realize how quick Merrydale became home. It’d been so easy to fall into place. Dave, Pepper, Josh, the kids. Yeah, Reggie could see herself staying there, but first she had to make sure that Dom had her mother under control. Barring no bad luck, Reggie thought maybe she could make a life for herself. A new one, that didn’t involve running anymore.